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Dark Girls

Dark Girls is a fascinating and controversial documentary film that goes underneath the surface to explore the prejudices that dark-skinned women face throughout the world. It explores the roots of classism, racism and the lack of self-esteem within a segment of cultures that span from America to the most remote corners of the globe. Women share their personal stories, touching on deeply ingrained beliefs and attitudes of society, while allowing generations to heal as they learn to love themselves for who they are.

Bracing New Documentary “Dark Girls” Delves Beneath The Skins of Women Darker Than Most and the Separate Lives They Lead

Film to Premier in September at the Toronto International Film Festival

Has anything really changed since the days of American slavery when dark-skinned Blacks were made to suffer even greater indignities than their lighter skinned counterparts? Ask today’s dark Black woman.

Dual documentary Directors/Producers D. Channsin Berry (Urban Winter Entertainment) and Bill Duke (Duke Media) took their cameras into everyday America in search of pointed, unfiltered and penetrating interviews with Black women of the darkest hues for their emotional expose’, “Dark Girls”. Two years in the making and slated to premier at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Dark Girls” pulls back our country’s curtain to reveal that the deep seated biases and hatreds of racism – within and outside of the Black American culture – remain bitterly entrenched.

Berry states of the film’s origin, “When Bill called me with the idea of a documentary about dark-skinned women, I was in right away. Being a dark-skinned Black man, like Bill, I have gone through similar traumas. Being separated and discriminated against by our own people. It stifles your self-esteem. Bill and I shared our similar experiences and immediately understood that we knew the best way to approach this.”

Duke adds, “In the late `60s a famous psychological study was done in which a young Black girl was presented with a set of dolls. Every time the she was asked to point to the one that wasn’t pretty, not smart, etc., she pointed to the Black doll that looked just like her. In her mind, she was already indoctrinated. To watch her do that was heartbreaking and infuriating. CNN did the test again recently – decades later – with little progress. As the filmmakers behind ‘Dark Girls,’ our goal is to take that little girl’s finger off that doll.”

Dark-skinned Black American women from all walks of life will be covered with a key focus trained tightly upon women struggling for upward mobility in the workplace of Corporate America. “The sickness is so crazy,” Berry continues. “These ladies broke it down to the degree that dark-skinned ‘sistas’ with ‘good’ hair vs. dark-skinned women with ‘kinky’ hair were given edges when it came time for coveted promotions.” Additional interviewees for “Dark Girls” include White men in loving intimate relationships with Black women that were passed over by “their own men,” as well as dark-skinned women of Latin and Panamanian background to bring a world perspective to the issue of dark vs. light.

Berry concludes, “The skin issue is a discussion we all need to have once and for all…so we can eradicate it.”

When I was in grade school, there was this dark-skinned girl named Jennifer. She was a very sweet girl. Had the most beautiful, chocolate skin I’ve every seen. However, there was this guy named Mark Jenkins (ugly as I don’t know what) who always picked on Jennifer. He liked to call her “darkie” and “spook”. I never thought to intervene at that time because it was really the true response of most kids: we just didn’t do anything if it didn’ t involve us. However, what I was witnessing was bullying. Mark harassed Jennifer the entire year. The following year, Jennifer left the state. Her family was Navy.

I always wondered how this impacted her and after watching this video; it made me ever more convicted to challenge anyone who treats people in this manner

As a dark-skinned African American man, I agree 100% with the commenter above, Hung Like Jesus.

Obviously I do not want to start a gender war between black men and black women(thats pointless) but I have to admit, being a dark-skinned black male definitely aint no walk in the park! To be fair, I do feel that dark skinned black females have it worse,especially when the Eurocentric standard of beauty is what dominates the world for females, in terms of feeling unwanted and rejected in the relationship market(I dont usually have that problem). However, when it comes to the negative stereotypes about blacks, dark skinned black males do indeed get a huge portion of that image placed on them. In terms of self-esteem, thats not healthy when society views you as a criminal,uneducated,violent,etc. Thankfully my light skinned(mulatto) mother did not tell me anything negative about my skin tone when I was growing up(in fact, she was the one who got me interested in black nationalism by learning about Malcolm X,Marcus Garvey, Huey Newton, etc.) but an individual parent could only do so much in comparison to the much larger and more influential collective society that is dominated by white supremacy.

Anyway, it is nice that this post has been created for us as black folks to mentally heal ourselves from this tramua. Im not gonna lie, Im a sinner too as I have also been brainwashed by the “lighter the better” train of thought. Nevertheless, if anyone saw the movie-Get On the Bus(where the men are going to the Million Man March), the character that Ossie Davis played who died towards the end of the movie, said its a step towards becoming better men(or something like that). The more we talk about this issues that plague our communities and our lives, it is the right step to become better men and women in the places where we live!

I saw it when it came on oprah network, it was good but i’d have liked to see them go to a lot more countries and show the effect colorism has on every black and brown society. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxECtIsg5GQ

I am a dark skin young, Black woman and that documentary hit me very hard. I experienced a Black guy picked on me for being dark in my freshmen year of high school. For what reason? He was dark skin himself and probably had low self esteem. I am okay now but I will never forget that incident.

Colorism is a serious problem in our community. And it needs to be addressed. Most of the hatred for dark skin comes from slavery. We were taught to hate everything about ourselves. I think it’s harder for dark skinned women than men. Light skin is closely associated with white beauty standards. That’s why most rap and r&b videos usually have a light skinned love interest. The media is brainwashing little black boys to see only light skin/biracial women as the object of beauty. Where does this leave dark skinned girls?? This is the problem. I have dated dark skin,light skin,light brown women…..pretty much every shade. I never really had a preference regarding skin tone. I think we need to embrace the full color spectrum of beauty. Black women are beautiful of every shade. It’s time we move pass this silly color issue. It only holds us back in the long run.

Kushite, you and I both have experienced this–even where I work, there are people who are colorstruck. I see it every single day. Some Black people aren’t even shy about admitting it. However, as you said: yes. It does come from slavery and this attitude keeps being passed down, generation after generation.

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